ABILITY: The green and gold     >> Back to team's page

Ability College joined ELSA in 2007 filling the void left by the departure of Milton College. This was rather ironic, as the DoS of Ability in ’07 was none other than Steven James, long time associate of Friday afternoon Queens Park football from as far back as 1994 (see archives) and DoS at Milton when they had won the double two years running in 2004 and 2005.

Ability, at that time, were just finding their feet as a new college in the Central Station area of Sydney and looking to give their eager, football loving students a way to exercise their skills. What better way than to join ELSA and try their luck against the likes of their neighbourhood colleges GCA and Aspect who were long time ELSA competitors.

Under the guidance of Jordan Moseley they took to the field wearing their distinctive Green and Gold stripes and weighed themselves up against their more seasoned opponents. In short, Ability had a disastrous inaugural season in the league, finishing bottom and only managing one draw for their efforts. It was noted; however, that Ability, although losing week after week, would always turn up and give every contest their level best and more often than not manage to breach the defenses of much stronger teams to deny them a clean sheet. In the 2007 Knockout Cup, Ability lost only to the league leaders and finished up winning the loser’s final.

2008 started pretty much the same as the previous year, this time under the leadership of Justin Lepani, with Ability losing all their games in the first round. Still, something was stirring in the Ability camp; that will to win. There was also an undeniable, underlying strength growing within the team. Throughout the second half of the season Ability gained the respect of their opponents for their hard, no nonsense playing style and again that ‘never say die’ attitude.

The high point of the season came for Ability when they won their first league game since their debut by beating APC 4-1 and then following it up with a win over ACE 2-0 and then a draw with LETS 3-3. Ability had hit the winners list with a bang! Although losing their last two games of the league, in the knockout stage they managed to edge out cup favourites SELC and make it through to the semis. Ability earned the title ‘giantkillers’, and won the ‘2008 Most Improved Team’ award.

It has taken two long seasons of hard slog for Ability to come of age in the competition and with Justin at the helm, standing tough in the tussle there is no doubt Ability will be in the mix for many more seasons to come.